The cost of owning a home in Texas is on the rise, census shows

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DALLAS — The cost of owning a home in Texas grew in 2024, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday, even as state lawmakers have taken steps to dramatically cut property taxes.

Texas homeowners saw relief on their property tax bill in 2024, according to figures the bureau released Thursday. That bill fell 6.6% from about $4,400 in 2023 to just over $4,100 in 2024, when adjusted for inflation. The typical homeowner paid less in property taxes last year than they did just before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Texas lawmakers have spent several years and billions of dollars trying to rein in Texans’ property tax bills, among the highest in the nation. But other homeownership costs, including expenses like insurance and utilities, ate into that tax relief. The median Texas homeowner in 2024 paid $1,452 in monthly costs, a 2.7% increase from the previous year. The spike is similar across the U.S., figures show.

Texas homeowners’ monthly costs sit about 7% higher than they did in 2019. The typical Texas homeowner with a mortgage spent 22.2% of their income on those costs last year. That’s about in line with what U.S. homeowners paid in 2024, a figure that “points to an increased burden on homeowners,” said Jacob Fabina, a Census Bureau economist.

Meanwhile, Texas renters are seeing some relief after years of steep rent increases as the state boomed — though they’re largely paying more than they did before the pandemic. The median Texas rent grew 1.4% in 2024, a slower pace than in the two previous years. The typical Texas renter last year was considered “cost-burdened,” meaning they spent more than 30% of their paycheck on rent and utilities, a point at which those expenses begin to crowd out other household costs like child care and groceries.

Though rent has eased in some places, rents in most places remain higher than they stood in 2019. The median Texas rent stood about 10% higher in 2024 than in 2019. Rents grew even faster in the Sherman-Denison, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Killeen-Temple, Waco, Wichita Falls regions. Meanwhile, tenants in Brownsville, Midland, Odessa, Texarkana and Victoria paid less in rent in 2024 than they did in 2019.

Incomes haven’t kept up with rising costs this decade. The state’s median household income in Texas grew 2.2% from about $78,006 in 2023 to $79,721 in 2024, census data show. But that income has grown only 1.2% since 2019, when adjusted for inflation.

The state’s poverty rate and rate of those without health insurance fell slightly statewide. Income inequality widened in Texas and in the Houston and San Antonio regions, while it eased in Austin, Dallas, El Paso and McAllen.

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